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East Coast Habits screwed up directions in DT-II

I grew up on the East Coast and one time in California, I knew I was south of San Francisco on an excursion to Alice's Restaurant... So, after eating at Alice's, I put the ocean on my right and drove - knowing that would get me back to S.F. (to my east-coast mind, I was going North..) -- I ended up in Half Moon Bay before I figured out what my mind had done...

Stephen King has done the same type of location confusion thing in The Drawing of the Three... In the Prisoner, after reaching the Western Sea, Roland decides to walk North... and not a page later starts talking about the sea to his right and the mountains to his left... (ouch!!!)

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one afflicted by such an ingrained geospatial tattoo...

These are the references that need fixing -- left to right, right to left,,,
ISBN 0-452-26214-3
Pgs: 32, 177, 291

I grew up on the East Coast and one time in California, I knew I was south of San Francisco on an excursion to Alice's Restaurant... So, after eating at Alice's, I put the ocean on my right and drove - knowing that would get me back to S.F. (to my east-coast mind, I was going North..) -- I ended up in Half Moon Bay before I figured out what my mind had done...

Stephen King has done the same type of location confusion thing in The Drawing of the Three... In the Prisoner, after reaching the Western Sea, Roland decides to walk North... and not a page later starts talking about the sea to his right and the mountains to his left... (ouch!!!)

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one afflicted by such an ingrained geospatial tattoo...

These are the references that need fixing -- left to right, right to left,,,
ISBN 0-452-26214-3
Pgs: 32, 177, 291

Click to expand...

Welcome to SKMB and I thought that in these Dark Tower books it was a different world? I must admit I still have to read that series as I only have read The Gunslinger so far. Hey poetic license and all that it's a fantasy world after all.

Go west to the western sea.
Go north.
At this point, unless the meanings of the directions west and north are to be discarded, the sea will be on your left and the land masses will be on your right...
And the Dark Tower series has many similarities between the worlds, not inverse definitions of direction.
It's just a slip up -- by an East Coast Mind...

This is my 3rd time through the series (and the first time I noticed these).
Pg. 31: He had come from the east; he could not walk west without the powers of a saint or a savior. That left north and south. North. The gunslinger began to walk.
Pg. 32: The sea to his right, the mountains to his left,
It should read: "The sea to his left, the mountains to his right,"
When developing mental imagery, it is nice to be consistent - the ones I've pointed out are simply contradictory - no matter what world it is on

When I was in college, I was in a history of theater class. Our teacher gave us a short play, character driven, (I forgot the name) and told us to take this play and put it in a completely different time setting. It was originally set in modern times. This was a huge project/paper we had to do as we had to have swatches of material we were going to use for costumes and furniture. We had to have pictures of the props cut out of magazines or drawn, we had to have the correct lighting. If the time period you picked didn't have electricity, then you had to stay true to the time period, oil, candle, campfire etc. if polyester wasn't invented during the time you chose to set your play, then you couldn't use it. You get my drift here.

Everybody was doing massive amounts of research as they all, 30 or more people, set the play in the past.

I was the only one to set it in the future. My future world could be however I wanted and contain whatever I wanted. The teacher could not argue my future nor dock me for it. I got an A.

This is how I look at this body of work. It's Stephen's world to do with as he pleases.

I'm the same way...hell on directions, say right, mean left and then it dawns on me two three hours later when the truck is late making a delivery. We're midwest though...wife, same way...she confuses me, that's how bad it is. But yeah, like this once I'm reading Bag of Bones and Noonan...as I recall...heads down to the beach to head over to the restaurant...turns left while I'm by the right flank march. It all comes out in the wash.

This is my 3rd time through the series (and the first time I noticed these).
Pg. 31: He had come from the east; he could not walk west without the powers of a saint or a savior. That left north and south. North. The gunslinger began to walk.
Pg. 32: The sea to his right, the mountains to his left,
It should read: "The sea to his left, the mountains to his right,"
When developing mental imagery, it is nice to be consistent - the ones I've pointed out are simply contradictory - no matter what world it is on

Click to expand...

Not if it is a nonsense world, topsy turvy. The laws of the physical world don't necessarily apply here as we know them.

Welcome to the site--I hope you enjoy your time here with us. You have indeed picked up on something that had been noted previously, thanks.

For me personally, it's not really a very big deal considering the Other Worlds. (which as DJ mentions might very well have rules unto themselves, and why not...? They are completely governed by imagination.)

Welcome to SKMB and I thought that in these Dark Tower books it was a different world? I must admit I still have to read that series as I only have read The Gunslinger so far. Hey poetic license and all that it's a fantasy world after all.

Click to expand...

I haven't STARTED the third book YET, but I LOVED the first two. As I recall the place that ROLAND is, is in a screwed up state of EXISTENCE,(Think the TWILIGHT ZONE!) regular directional laws don't necessarily apply!